


Fish are not Beginner Pets

by Claire3467



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Deaf Character, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, bits is technically being held captive right now but they aren't doing it to be dicks, they think he's a kid and don't wanna release him in case he gets hurt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-14 10:25:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16038560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claire3467/pseuds/Claire3467
Summary: The New England aquarium has recently acquired the first ever captive merperson. After a month, new hire and recent college grad Jack Zimmermann is the only keeper he hasn't tried to drown.Eric has been stuck in a box for longer than he wants to think about, and he has just about reached his limit when the handsome human who actually knows how to talk properly shows up.





	1. Chapter 1 (6 weeks after capture)

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been in progress for a while, but I thought I'd test the waters a bit (haha) before I post the other couple chapters I have written. This fic may or may not wind up just sort of being a series of drabbles set within this universe that may or may not be chronological. We shall see. Hope you enjoy!  
> Oh, and before I forget- all sentences in ASL will be written with English grammar to make it less confusing (and because I don't actually know ASL and had to look up lots of stuff about it to make sure when I have Bitty learning that I don't have anything too stupid happened.) So let me know if I get anything wrong about it!

Jack had heard about the merman, of course. Everyone in the world probably had by now. The New England Aquarium was the first in the world to manage to capture a live merperson. Even better, he seemed to be doing fairly well, as his dad had been telling him. 

Well, he was eating and swimming, anyway. Most of the time. 

“He’s responding very poorly to all the trainers we’ve put with him,” His dad explained as they walked through the staff hallways to the exhibit. “It’s like trying to work with a very intelligent, very pissed off dolphin with opposable thumbs. He’s pulled three people under in the last week alone. And that’s not even the highest number since he was brought in.”

Jack took a moment to process this. He’d only been at the aquarium for a little over a month, his degree in marine biology still fresh off the printer. The merman had been captured a couple of weeks before that, but Jack had yet to interact with him, having insisted that he start where any other new hire did to prove that he hadn’t just gotten the job because his father was the general curator. 

“-to pull them in,” his dad was saying. 

“Sorry,” Jack said. “What was that?”

His dad smiled at him. “Should I sign?”

Jack touched his processor. ‘Yes please.’

‘We’ve installed a gate and padlock, but we’re also trying to use taller keepers with him. It seems to be a little harder for him to pull them in.’

Jack frowned. ‘Does he try to hold them under?’

‘Only for a moment. He mostly just drags them in, then darts away before we can get him.’ He swiped his keycard and waved Jack through the ‘Employees Only’ door. 

As they walked in, a shouted “little  _ fucker _ !” filled the area behind the door. Jack grinned as Shitty straightened up from the side of the tank. 

“Having problems, Shits?” He called. 

“Hey, Jack,” Ransom said, not looking up from where he was leaning over the gate, stretching to reach the bucket that Jack could now see floating just beyond easy reach. 

Shitty grabbed Jack into a bear hug. The three had met during summer internships at the aquarium; Shitty and Jack as keepers, Ransom as a future vet tech. Shitty had declared Jack his friend within five minutes of meeting him and similarly grabbed Ransom two weeks later. 

Ransom was talking to Bob. “He grabbed the bucket. Again.” 

“It’s good that you’re here now, bro,” Shitty said, patting Jack on the back as they all stared at the bucket that was floating farther away as they spoke. “You can hold Rans while he reaches over the gate for it.”

“Um, no,” Ransom said, spinning around and pointing at Shitty. “How about Jack and I hold  _ you _ while  _ you _ reach over and grab it, Mr. ‘We don’t need to clip the bucket in’.”

Jack finally noticed the carabiner hanging off of the gate. “How the hell does he even reach the damn thing?” he asked, moving closer to peer over the thick metal bars. The merman was nowhere to be seen. 

“Our best guess is that he goes down to the bottom to get enough speed, then zips straight up with enough force to pop out of the water far enough to reach over the bars and grab it,” Bob explained. 

“Which is complete bullshit, considering how small Bitty is,” Ransom said, tossing a few fish from a different bucket into the tank, probably hoping to get an idea of where the merman was before they risked reaching into the water.

“You named him?” Jack asked. 

“We all got tired of calling him ‘the merman’,” Bob answered, joining Jack to lean over the gate. Jack noticed that he was careful to keep his arms on their side.

Jack studied the gate and platform. The platform extended a couple feet past the gate, sloping down into the water. It had probably been designed in the hopes that Bitty would come up for health checks and training, but that didn’t seem like it would happen any time soon. According to Ransom, nobody had managed to get their hands on an unsedated merman without losing blood since he was brought in. As a clawed hand poked out of the water and grabbed the bucket’s handle, Jack could see why most of the keepers had refused to work with him anymore.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Shitty exclaimed as the five gallon bucket went under without a pause. 

“Get back-” Bob shouted as a wave of water splashed over the gate. His dad yanked him back just in time to avoid the bucket that followed it, hitting the back wall with enough force that the handle popped off. 

Jack was searching for a towel to dry his processor with, so he just barely caught his father’s signing. ‘And that, gentlemen, is why we clip the bucket in.’

***

Eric was not happy. In fact, he had been in a constant state of unhappiness for about two cycles, if he had to guess. Without the moon he couldn’t be sure exactly how much time had passed since he had been separated from his pod, but it wasn’t like it actually mattered. It had been way, way too long since he had been stuck in this tiny, sunless, moonless box filled with cold water that tasted  _ wrong _ and no one to talk to. He could see the other boxes if he looked out the glass walls of his box. He  _ knew _ all of the other creatures were allowed to share their boxes, but the humans apparently didn’t trust him not to eat them .

Well, technically he  _ had _ eaten a few of the ones that had been in his box when they first dropped him in, but he had been  _ so _ hungry. He had been separated from his pod for over seven days when the humans found him in the small pool he had been trapped in, washed over the edge of the rocks during a storm into a pool where the tides never reached high enough for him to swim out. His shoulder had been hurt during the storm and it had left his arm dangling uselessly by his side, making it impossible for him to even try to climb out. 

He had been too weak to fight when the humans scooped him out of the pool. 

It had been his seventeenth birthday when they found him.

_ I’m not so weak now,  _ he thought grimly as he aimed the fish-container at the new human, the one who wasn’t paying attention. He watched in disappointment as the older human pulled the new one out of the way. He normally would have been faster, but the humans seemed determined to starve him, feeding him much less than he would have normally eaten. He remembered his teachers saying that humans favored those that looked like they were unable to feed themselves well, and remembered laughing at the idea with the rest of his classmates. He knew humans had clothes to keep warm in the air and didn’t need fat to protect them, but the idea of not letting yourself eat was just… weird. 

This new human, however, looked much more like the mermen he was used to. (The build of the dark haired one that kept trying to poke him with needles was similar to the fighters of his pod, but they were the exception.) He was cute, Eric admitted. And he hadn’t shouted at him or tried to touch him. Yet. He looked like the older human that kept coming with the one with glasses to bring new people to throw dead fish at him and try to grab him. They looked enough alike that Eric figured the older one was probably the father of the blue eyed one that was still frowning and rubbing a piece of cloth on the small thing he had pulled from his ear.

Eric was so busy studying the new human (because he wanted to figure out how to leave, he told himself firmly; humans weren’t worth even  _ thinking _ about that way; not in his position) that he almost missed what the older human was doing. 

_ He was talking.  _ Properly, with his hands, though still out loud like the humans insisted on doing. Merfolk would speak to get each other’s attention, or to talk briefly over long distances, but that vocabulary was very limited and almost all communication was done through their hands.  _ Like this one was doing. _ Eric was so excited that he had swam halfway to the bars by the time he realized that he couldn’t recognize any of what the human was saying. He stared for another minute, but finally gave up. Even when the humans seemed to be doing something right, they were still wrong. He hissed in frustration and chattered out some words that his mother would smack him for saying, but it wasn’t like the humans could understand him anyway. They probably couldn’t even tell the difference between his voice and a dolphin’s. 

It did make them turn and stare at him warily, though. The one with hair on his face even reached for the metal stick that they would poke him with when he would try to claw them. He rolled his eyes. Honestly, it wasn’t like he would come near them with four of them staring at him. He glanced at the blue-eyed one again and smirked at the way he was gaping at him. He basked in the attention for a minute (It was always nice to have someone properly appreciate his tail.) before his hunger won out enough to make him want to find the bland, long dead fish the dark-haired one had thrown into the water. 

He made sure to let his tail flick out of the water for a few seconds longer than necessary as he dove. There was certainly no harm in dazzling the humans, after all.

***

Jack glanced up from drying his processor to find everyone standing frozen and tense, Shitty gripping the long metal pole they had been using instead of the tranquilizer gun to keep Bitty at bay. Bitty himself was floating just a few feet from the platform, his chin just barely above the surface. From the chin up, he looked amazingly human with golden skin, a tiny nose, freckles, and blond hair just long enough to cover his ears - as long as one ignored the inhumanly large brown eyes. They had guessed that he was around fourteen or fifteen, assuming merpeople aged anything like humans did.

The illusion was broken the moment you looked below the surface. Delicate looking gills pulsed on either side of his ribcage and in addition to the vicious claws Jack had noticed earlier, his fingers were webbed to the first knuckle. The scales started just above his belly button, getting more frequent until they were covering any skin that may have been there by the time they reached his hips. They reminded Jack of clouds at sunrise, dozens of shades of pink and gold and pale orange. The graceful fins that traveled along the sides and partway down the back of his tail made him think of a cross between bettas and those ridiculous fancy goldfish: lots of rippling, gentle curves that, apparently, let the little merman dart insanely fast around his tank when he wanted to. 

Jack didn’t realize he was staring until Bitty fixed his gaze on him- was he smirking?- before diving underwater, flicking his tail as he went. 

‘Wow,’he said. ‘He’s…’

‘Yeah,’ Ransom said.’He’s a little shit is what he is. Haven’t seen him this close to the surface for so long in a while, though.’

‘It’s because this beautiful fucker showed up!’ Shitty declared. He planted a noisy kiss on Jack’s cheek.

‘He just threw a bucket at my head,’ Jack pointed out. ‘I don’t think he likes me that much.’ 

‘Well,’ Bob said, ‘It actually wasn’t the  _ worst _ first reaction we’ve had from him. And he did seem interested, at least. He was swimming closer for a moment.’ He clapped Jack on the shoulder as he put his processor back on. “It’s worth a try, at least. As long as you’re up for it, of course.”

Jack stared at the still water. Bitty was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t sure he liked that, and he definitely didn’t like that he didn’t like it.

‘Okay.’


	2. Chapter 2 (2 months after capture)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a couple weeks working with him, Jack thinks he may have finally figured out how to get through to Bitty.
> 
> Eric is considerably less than happy with his current situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am blown away with the response I've gotten from this! I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this, because it's a blast to write! Here's chapter 2!

Jack pushed open the door to Bitty’s tank at seven in the morning, picking the bucket of fish up from where he had set it on the floor. It was his first time he would be handling Bitty’s morning feeding alone, since Shitty had called in sick last night; Ransom was helping with a sick nurse shark; and all the other employees refused to so much as set foot in the merman area unless Bitty had been fully sedated. He personally thought that they were probably overreacting, since in his week of training to work with him, he had seen the little guy exactly twice, and one of those was only for a few seconds. 

He set the bucket down several feet from the gate and took his processor off, wrapping it carefully in a hand towel before placing it and his key ring in the little pouch hanging from the wall. It had apparently been put there for the keepers to put their phones before getting within splashing distance. Jack debated leaving his out for a moment before slipping it in. He’d need to get a better case for it if today went well. He frowned as his wrist guard caught on the straps of the bag. He didn’t really  _ want _ to get it wet, but he also really didn’t want to deal with seeing his fucked-up excuse for a Name today. 

He ignored the carabiner hanging from the gate, leaving the bucket well out of reach of anyone in the tank. He grabbed a couple pieces of fish and tossed them into the water just beyond the edge of the platform. Then, he sat down on the ground and settled in to wait.

It didn’t take long. Bitty apparently knew when he was supposed to be fed, and that he was supposed to get a lot more than two pieces of smelt. Barely five minutes passed between the fish disappearing from the surface of the water and Bitty poking his head out and glaring at him from several yards away. From the way his mouth opened, Jack figured he was probably chattering angrily at him. He tried not to grin. Unfortunately for his new friend, he couldn’t hear anything without his processor. 

Jack didn’t think Bitty understood English, and he didn’t think vocal cords that let you make dolphin and seal noises would probably let you talk the way humans were used to. 

But Bitty seemed like he was probably at least as smart as the average gorilla, and if  _ they  _ could manage to learn….

‘Hi,’ he signed. ‘My name is Jack.’ He slowly repeated himself. By the time he had finished his name sign, Bitty had swum close enough that he could rest his hands on the lowest portion of the platform, propping himself up out of the water. His eyes hadn’t left Jack since he had started signing. He was frowning, but his eyes were clearly tracking Jack’s hands.

Jack reached over and grabbed a fish from the bucket. He held it up so Bitty could see. ‘Fish.’  He tossed it over the gate.

***

This new human was interesting after all. Eric chanced coming close to the platform to get a better look at the motions he was making with his hands. He had seen some of the other humans do similar things when talking to this one, but they had always spoken aloud as well. This one was silent. He repeated what he had signed, slowly pressing his palm to his chest in a way that made Eric think he was probably trying to tell his name.

Eric hissed at him while he was turned to reach into the fish-container, but the human didn’t flinch. Weird. 

The human held up a piece of mackerel and signed another word before tossing it over the gate. Eric thought he knew what the human was trying to do, he just didn't understand  _ why _ . The human held up another piece of what Eric thought was probably smelt and repeated the word. ‘Fish.’ It landed by Eric’s tail. He narrowed his eyes at the human, who was still sitting patiently. Eric’s stomach growled. 

_ What is going to make you just give me my food already? _ He thought, snarling at him. The human repeated the first sentence.  _ Yes, your name is Jack, I get it. _ By the time Jack held up another fish, Eric had had enough. He lunged for it through the bars, claws missing Jack’s hand by several lengths. 

The human at least had the decency to look alarmed now, tossing the fish more gently so it landed by Eric’s hand. He snatched it up, tearing into it in front of Jack, too hungry and annoyed to bother with privacy. And then Jack  _ started laughing _ . Eric glared at him, swallowing the last of the fish as Jack signed another word. When Eric didn’t respond, Jack clutched at his stomach and made a face. ‘Hungry?’ Eric wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of answering. His stomach growled again. 

This time, Jack held up a piece of squid. ‘Squid.’ He held it up with another piece of fish and gestured at both and the container they had come from. ‘Food.’ He was beginning to look upset, but tossed both over the gate anyway. He reached into the container again, but the door opened and slammed shut before he pulled anything out. Eric rolled his eyes and sank back into the water, leaving his eyes above the surface to watch as Jack’s father walked onto the platform, saying something aloud. Jack made a motion near his ear and his dad started signing instead…. Oh. 

Just to test, Eric let out a loud squeak. The other human startled and turned to look at him. Jack still didn’t react. Well, that was settled then. Was that why he talked properly instead of like the other humans?

The older human apparently decided that Eric wasn’t going to attack them today and went back to talking with Jack. Which would have been fine, except Eric was still  _ fucking starving _ . He slapped his tail on the surface, but this time neither of them turned to him. When snarling still didn’t get him more than a sideways glance, he dove fully into the water. He had been treated like a stupid animal since they had kidnapped him, and he was fucking  _ done _ .

He surged upward as fast as he could, breaching the surface and falling sideways, drenching Jack and his dad. While they were still wiping the water from their eyes, he went as far up the platform as he dared and made eye contact as soon as Jack looked at him. 

‘Hungry. Food,’ he signed.

He watched in satisfaction as Jack’s eyes widened. A grin slowly spread across the human’s face as Eric repeated the words. He reached into the fish-container and tossed a handful over. He started devouring them as Jack and his dad went back to signing rapidly. Well, if this was what he had to do to be fed, then fine. 

There were worse things than chatting with someone who looked as nice as Jack, after all. 

As he finished the fish, Jack waved to get his attention. ‘My name is Jack,’ he signed. ‘His name is Bob. What’s your name?’ 

Eric glared. He was  _ not _ going so far as to teach this human any of his language. That was strictly forbidden for anyone other than soulmates. Jack repeated the question, looking a little disappointed. Eric shook his head. 

‘Hungry,’ he signed again. Jack sighed and reached back into the fish-container.

***

By the time the aquarium was ready to open and Bitty needed to be back towards the bottom of the tank so the visitors could see him, Jack had taught Bitty the signs for everything around the top of his tank, as well as a few things he could clearly point to within it. Most of it wouldn’t be useful for talking to him, but it would work to prove that Bitty was understanding at least some of what Jack was telling him. 

Assuming he remembered any of it by the next morning, or even by the time Jack came by later in the day to check on him. (Which Jack had been trying to incorporate into his schedule so Bitty could get used to him.) Bitty had been repeating the correct signs when Jack had pointed to the objects, but he wasn’t entirely sure that he actually understood what they  _ meant _ . He had asked to be fed, yes, but as Bob had pointed out, he may have just been parroting the signs that Jack had shown him. 

‘Bye, Bitty,’ he signed. ‘I’ll be back later, okay?’ The merman cocked his head and frowned. He probably hadn’t understood any of that, but the websites he had read last night said that immersion was supposed to be a good way to learn a new language, so he’d just keep throwing words out and hope for the best. He picked up the empty bucket (he wasn’t an idiot, he knew the only reason Bitty had stayed at the surface was because he had only thrown a few fish at a time) and turned to go.  

By the time he had gotten his processor and turned back to look, Bitty was gone.

***

Eric laid on the bottom of his box, thoroughly ignoring the people staring at him through the glass. Sometimes he would smile at the children or twist and turn to show off his tail, but the longer he was in this box the less he cared about entertaining the humans.  _ Especially _ the one who was currently pounding on the side of his box in an effort to make him move. He curled into a ball, clamping his hands over his ears. It  _ hurt _ . Why did all the humans hate him so much? 

Suddenly, the noise stopped. Eric peeked out from behind his tail to see Jack arguing with the loud man. The man rolled his eyes, reaching out to the glass again. Eric ducked down again, bracing himself for more noise.

But it didn’t come. 

Eric lifted his head to see Jack standing in between the glass and the man, arms crossed. His back was to Eric as he shifted left to right as the man tried to get around him. Eric hesitantly uncurled and swam closer.

At the other humans’ gasps, Jack turned and smiled faintly at Eric. He lifted his hand to wave at Eric, and looked ready to begin signing when one of the people Eric had scared away his first week appeared and started talking to him.

Eric frowned. He had thought Jack couldn’t hear. How had the human gotten his attention?

Jack nodded at the human and turned back to Eric. He pointed at the circle on the wall across from Eric’s box, then held both his arms straight up and tight together. 

Eric stared at him. What on earth was he doing? 

Jack pointed at the circle again, then to the top of Eric’s box. He waved again, then left with the other human. 

What on earth was that supposed to mean? Eric frowned at the odd circle. Upon closer inspection, it had two lines on it, pointing in different directions, and was lined with what he was fairly sure were human numbers. As Eric continued looking at it, the longer of the two lines moved, every so slightly. Was this how humans tracked time, then? He supposed they would have to have a different way, with how often they hid inside away from the sun and moon. Strange.

The line moved again.  Eric settled down to wait.

When both lines were together and pointing straight up, Eric went to the surface.

***

Jack had no idea if Bitty would understand what he meant with the clock. He had planned on just tossing the ball he had brought into the tank if he didn’t. The merman seemed to be able to sense vibrations throughout his tank, and would generally investigate if something was thrown in. But still, he wanted to talk a little bit first, if he would let him.

Thankfully, Bitty’s head broke the surface right at noon, just past the platform. He tilted his head curiously. Jack had left his processor on this time in the hopes that Bitty would be a little less angry, and he could hear the gentle burbling coming from his new friend. 

Bitty made a circle with his hands, pointed in the general direction of the clock, and waved his hands, tilting his head as he did so. 

‘Clock,’ Jack showed him, fighting the urge to let his hands flap as well.

‘Clock,’ Bitty repeated. He held both hands up as Jack had done earlier, then waved his hands again. Jack wondered if the merpeople used that to ask questions, or if Bitty was just trying to get his point across. With how quickly Bitty was picking it up, Jack had to assume that he had at least some concept of language.

Jack waved his hands like Bitty had, then carefully signed ‘How do you sign that?’ He and his dad had debated trying to teach Bitty proper grammar, but Jack didn’t see the harm in trying. He repeated the phrase and waited until Bitty caught on.

‘How do you sign that?’ and then held both arms up again.

‘Noon,’ Jack signed.

‘Noon,’ Bitty repeated, nodding. Jack thought about trying to explain what a clock did, but he wasn’t sure if he was up for trying to explain the concept of time.

At any rate, Bitty didn’t seem interested in it. ‘Food?’ He asked, pointing at the bucket next to Jack. His burbling had turned into something a little higher pitched, interspersed with clicks. 

‘Yes,” Jack signed, reaching in. ‘Clam. Shrimp.’ Now that Bitty was responding to them, it was time to see what he would eat. At the sight of the shrimp, Bitty shrieked and made a grabbing motion. 

‘Shrimp. Shrimp!’ he signed frantically, his tail thrashing as he came close enough to reach through the bars and grab at Jack’s hand. 

Jack had been planning on trying to teach him how to ask politely for it, but seeing the little kid act like he was starving derailed that for the moment. He handed over the shrimp, watching in mild disgust as Bitty ripped into it, swallowing the snack in a couple bites. 

He held his hand out impatiently. ‘Hungry! Shrimp!’

Jack frowned. He had eaten an entire bucket of fish just a few hours ago, but maybe Bitty was misunderstanding what the sign meant. Jack set a few shrimp down near his legs. ‘Many shrimp.’ He added a few more, signing ‘more shrimp’ as he did. 

To his surprise, Bitty rolled his eyes at him. ‘More shrimp. Hungry!’ 

Jack passed him the shrimp. Bitty devoured them as the employee door closed behind him. He turned to see his dad and George heading over to the platform. For once, Bitty didn’t seem interested in diving back under at the sight of other people. Jack handed him a clam, figuring he could teach Bitty to ask please when he couldn’t open it. 

However, Bitty didn’t see a need to do that, as he slipped his claws into the crack and popped the clam open, slurping it down and setting the empty shell down just inside the bars.

Jack turned to see his dad and George staring at them. 

“Your dad said you’ve got him signing?” George asked, waving at Bitty.

‘More food!’ 

Jack held up a clam. ‘Please.’

Bitty frowned, tilting his head and making the same clicking noise from earlier. ‘Clam.’

Bob chuckled. “I don’t think he’s going to understand manners quite yet, son.”

***

Eric stared at Jack, ignoring Bob and the woman. What was he  _ doing _ ? Did Eric get the sign wrong? 

‘Clam,’ and that other sign again from Jack.

Eric glared, but repeated the phrase. It seemed to make Jack happy, anyway, since he smiled and handed the clam over. 

Eric studied the woman as he worked his snack open. (He was fairly sure this one was a woman, anyway. He wasn’t entirely sure if he remembered how to tell with humans.) He remembered her from a few times before. She was one of the few who hadn’t tried to grab him or poke him with things. He tried to remember the signs Jack had shown him this morning. ‘What’s your name?’

Now all three humans were staring at him.

‘My name is George,’ she signed slowly. She immediately turned to start talking with Jack and Bob, who were now ignoring him. 

He slid a little farther up the platform, just enough that he could slip his hand through the bars and yank the fish-container (bucket, Jack had called it) over. Two more clams tumbled out close enough for him to scoop them up. There was nothing else in the bucket. Eric whined, high and loud until the humans turned to him. 

‘More food?’ He signed hopefully. 

Jack showed him the empty bucket, shaking his head. ‘No. No more food.’

Eric whined again. ‘Hungry!’

‘What’s my name?’ Jack asked, turning to say something to George.

‘Jack,’ Eric signed. ‘What’s my name?’ He was curious what the humans had decided to call him.

‘Bitty,’ Jack signed, saying it aloud as well. ‘Your name is Bitty.’

Eric hummed. He supposed that was acceptable. He pointed at the brightly colored sphere next to Jack. ‘What’s that?’

***

‘Ball,’ Jack signed, grinning at his dad. ‘Want to play?’ He tossed it a little ways into the tank, watching as the little pool toy sank. 

Bitty frowned and clicked at him.

“His gills have been out of the water for a few minutes now,” George commented. “He’s not in distress though. And he seems to be respirating still. That’s fascinating.”

His dad hummed in agreement. “He also doesn’t seem to want to play, Jack. Or he has no idea what you want him to do.”

‘Go get the ball,’ Jack signed, motioning and pointing. ‘Go get the ball.’

Bitty looked at where it went, then back at Jack. ‘Ball?’

‘Yes. Go get the ball.’

Bitty ducked under the water, his tail flicking above the surface before he disappeared completely. 

“You really think he’ll play fetch with you?” George asked, pausing the conversation with Bob that Jack hadn’t really been paying attention to.

Jack shrugged. “He might. And he needs the exercise. All he does is sit at the bottom of his tank and glare at people. It can’t be good for him.”

“Fair enough,” she answered as Bitty reappeared with the ball. 

‘Thank you,’ Jack signed, holding out his hand for the ball. 

Bitty kept it just out of reach, though. His clicking had started again. ‘More food?’

‘No. No more food now. Ball, please,’ Jack signed, wondering if he’d created a monster. 

‘No ball. Food, please,’ Bitty signed, looking very pleased with himself. 

Jack showed him the empty bucket again. ‘No more food. Ball.’

Bob started laughing. “I’m not sure you’re going to win this one, son.”

Bitty had stopped clicking and started making a noise close to a growl. ‘Hungry. Food.’ He tapped his chest, then pointed at Jack. ‘Ball.’

***

For once, Eric wished he knew more of the human’s language. If Jack wanted his strange not-rock thing back, he was going to need to give Eric something, too. He was not a  _ seal, _ and he would not be playing fetch like one.

Starting to look frustrated as his father and George laughed, Jack made the sign for clock again, then held one arm above his head and one straight below. ‘More food.’

Making eye contact with Jack, Eric chucked the toy as far as he could back into the tank. He dove back into the water to the sounds of laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! I have one more chapter already mostly written, but there's a good chance I'm going to start time stamping the chapters and jumping around a lot (including maybe some from before Bitty got grabbed) so let me know if you'd be interested in that, because I don't necessarily have a concrete plot laid out yet.  
> As always, I'm claire3467 on tumblr! Feel free to come say hi!


	3. Chapter 3 (10 weeks after capture)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bitty gets his first checkup since he was brought in, and Ransom and Jack learn some very important information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I've got another chapter for you! (As promised, poor baby Bitty is going to be fed properly now, just so I can go ahead and set your minds at ease.) I've also gone and added time stamps to the two previous chapters, which is what I'll be doing from now on since this is going to be a not necessarily chronological series of scenes within this verse. I hope you enjoy!

Jack strolled into Bitty’s area, gently setting down the bag of children’s toys he had been collecting over the past week. He was still arguing for a tablet and waterproof case, but it had been agreed that he needed to show that Bitty was willing to learn before it would be approved. 

He could manage that. Through the past few weeks, Bitty had flown through the signs Jack had been teaching him, even managing to construct basic sentences (still with poor grammar, but they’d get there). He left again to grab Bitty’s breakfast, throwing in a few more pieces than he was technically supposed to have, but given how much more active the little merman had been, it was probably justified.

(He remembered two days ago when Bitty had sadly taken a nearly whole fish and swished it through the water like it was swimming. He had pointed towards the other tanks in the aquarium, signed ‘fish,’ then pointed into his tank and signed ‘no fish,’ making the saddest whining noise Jack had ever heard the entire time. Jack had decided then and there to add some less practical toys into his bag.)

By the time Jack returned to the platform, Bitty was trying to reach the toy bag and clicking curiously. ‘Good morning, Bitty.’

‘Hello, Jack. How do you sign that?’

‘Bag. Toys.’

Bitty tilted his head as he eagerly devoured the fish Jack tossed him. ‘Toys?’

Jack grinned, pulling open the drawstrings on the bag. The aquarium was currently refusing to add any other animals into Bitty’s tank, but Jack could give his lonely little friend the next best thing. He began pulling out the small plastic and squishy toys, naming each animal as he did.

‘Dolphin. Turtle. Whale. Fish. Sea star. Octopus. Crab. Snail. Seahorse. Seal. Shark. Penguin.’

Bitty reached through the gate and gently picked up the soft little dolphin, cradling it to his chest.

***

Eric stared as Jack began lifting the colorful little things out of the bag. The words Jack was using weren’t the color words Eric had been learning, and he was left confused until he got to ‘fish’. The animals, then?  He reached out and lifted up the thing that was supposed to be a ‘dolphin’ and  _ oh _ . It was softer even than the little woven toys he had when he was a child. He cradled it, marveling at how squishy it was. He felt something enter the water and looked up to see that Jack had moved close enough to begin setting the little toys into the water, several of which were now floating towards Eric. 

Eric squealed in delight, reaching for the floating ones. They were as soft as the little dolphin and got wet as he squeezed them. He glanced down to where the little turtle and crab were sinking down to the bottom of his box to join the seahorse and snail that were already there. 

When he looked back up, Jack had opened the gate and was holding the little ‘seal’ out to him. It didn’t look anything like any animal Eric had seen before. He would have remembered seeing something so purple and sparkly.

‘What is this?’ He asked Jack, letting the little toy float near over the slope of the platform.

‘Seal,’ Jack signed again.

Eric sighed in frustration. He had gotten a sign wrong again, apparently. Did it not mean what he thought it meant? Remembering the first day Jack signed to him piecing together some of the phrases Jack had shown him. ‘What is a seal?’

Jack frowned, then went to the wall and pulled a small, flat rock out of a bag, coming back and sitting down in front of Eric. ‘Phone,’ he signed, pointing at the rock. 

Eric peered at the ‘phone’ as Jack touched the front, making it glow and a small picture appear on front. He clicked as Jack touched parts of it, making the picture change and shift until a small image of a seal appeared. Eric stared in delight, reaching for it.

Jack let him touch the front, which was as slick as the sides of his box. He squeaked as the picture changed, replaced by one of a seal small enough to still have its baby fur. Not for the first time, Eric wished he had the signs to ask Jack to explain. 

He climbed up next to Jack, taking the little seal toy with him. He felt the human stiffen next to him, which was probably fair. He had hurt several of them when he first came here and had still been scared and confused. Well, more so than he was now, anyway. But Jack had never done anything to hurt him and had been the first human to treat him as a friend, so Eric could return the favor.

And it had been a long time since he had left his pod. As much as he was still wary of the humans, he was more desperate than he wanted to admit for a little contact. He let his arm brush against Jack’s, setting the seal in between them. 

‘Seals are gray,’ he signed, pointing at the picture on the phone. ‘Not purple.’

Jack looked startled for a moment, then started laughing. ‘It’s a toy,’ he responded. ‘For children. Children like colors.’

Eric decided that was probably an acceptable answer, if human children were anything like merchildren. He thought about how to ask his next question as Jack messed with his phone some more, pulling up more pictures of the animals the toys were meant to represent to show Eric what they meant. 

‘Jack? How do you sign…’ he ran through several of the signs he knew, hoping Jack would understand what he meant, ‘that?’

‘Sign,’ Jack responded, brow furrowed slightly.

So if the sentence Jack showed him actually meant that, then that meant the word was how, not what like Eric had thought. In that case …

‘How ears?’ he asked, pointing at Jack.

Jack stared at him. ‘How ears.’

Eric growled in frustration. ‘Day one you sign. No ears. Others ears. Then you ears. How?’ 

Jack continued frowning until suddenly his eyes widened. ‘Hear! How do I hear?’ He slowly moved his hand near Eric’s ear and snapped. ‘Hear.’

‘Yes!’ Eric squeaked happily. ‘How do you hear? Not hear day one.’

Jack laughed. ‘I can’t hear. I’m deaf,’ he signed, showing Eric the sign a couple times. ‘My ears are bad.’ He reached up and touched the little thing on his head Eric had noticed before, touching his phone more as he did so. ‘This is a cochlear implant,’ he signed, showing Eric a picture of it on the phone. He switched the picture to the inside of an ear. ‘This is inside the ear. The cochlear implant goes here. I can hear with it.’ He touched something else on the phone, and it showed a little moving picture like the ones he saw sometimes outside his box, only this one showed a little metal thing being placed inside the tubes connected to the ear.

Eric stared in fascination until Jack chuckled. He glanced up at him. ‘Connects to,’ he flipped to a picture of a brain. ‘Brain,’ he signed, then paused. ‘A brain is…’

Eric took pity, tapping his head. ‘Brain in here, yes?’

Jack looked relieved. ‘Yes.’

Eric leaned against Jack a little more, both to see the phone better and to enjoy the closeness.

Jack cleared his throat, startling Eric into glancing up at him. Jack took several deep, exaggerated  breaths. ‘Breathe,’ he signed, waiting for Eric to repeat it before he asked, ‘How do you breathe?’

‘Gills,’ Eric replied, because honestly, didn’t Jack know how fish  _ worked _ ? 

Jack shook his head. ‘Not in water. In air,’ he clarified. ‘How do you breathe in air?’

Eric frowned. How was he supposed to explain his labyrinth organ? He hadn’t paid nearly enough attention in class for this. ‘Don’t know sign. Use nose. How do you breathe?’

Jack sighed. ‘My nose. And lungs.’ He showed Eric a picture on his phone of what looked like the inside of a human. Eric reared back in surprise, making Jack chuckle next to him. Jack pointed to two blobs in the middle of the chest. ‘Lungs.’

Eric studied the picture. Those maybe looked close to what he thought merfolk had, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Science had never been his best subject, after all.

He shrugged, something he had picked up from Jack and his friends. ‘Maybe.’

***

Jack figured asking a young teenager wasn’t necessarily the best route to discovering the details of mermaid anatomy, but given how ravaged the corpses that had washed ashore had been, they hadn’t made much headway on certain things. Hell, they hadn’t even realized they might be able to breathe air until Bitty had climbed up out of the water the first time. Jack had been keeping track this time, and it had been almost ten minutes. However Bitty was doing it, it was clearly something he had evolved to do.

Which did technically make sense. Considering how frequently mermaids had been spotted up until a couple hundred years ago, they had probably lived in shallower waters for quite a while. It would have made sense to have a backup in case they had gotten beached.

Bitty’s stomach growled and Jack jump, feeling slightly embarrassed as Bitty let out his odd burbling giggle next to him. He passed the food bucket over. ‘Sorry.’

Bitty flashed him the ok sign and started eating, a process that still grossed Jack out a bit. Watching a shark tear into a chunk of raw fish had never bothered him, but something about seeing a face that looked so human do so was just… weird. 

He had been skeptical upon seeing pictures of the first body that had washed ashore. He hadn’t been able to see how sailors had ever mistaken Bitty’s species for beautiful women. But those had been rotted away, most of the flesh gone to expose the razor sharp teeth and the gossamer fins torn and faded. Seeing Bitty up close, vibrant and glowing made Jack realize how wrong they had been.

Some of his proportions were still off, his too big eyes and too small nose would give someone pause even before they saw the thin, pointed tips of his ears. But Bitty had an alien beauty about him that fascinated Jack, even beyond a scientific point.

Bitty smiled at him just as the door slammed open.

“Hey bro!” Ransom called cheerfully, bringing in his kit. “You fill Bitty in yet?”

“Ah, hell. No, I forgot. We got distracted.” He turned to Bitty. ‘Can Ransom touch you? We want to make sure you’re healthy.’

Bitty tilted his head and clicked. ‘Healthy?’

Jack pulled up his phone, finding a picture of two children, one looking faintly green with a runny nose and one smiling and happy. He wasn’t sure if Bitty would understand, but he’d give it a try. ‘Healthy is good. Sick is bad.’

Bitty studied the picture, then looked at Ransom suspiciously. ‘How touch?’

Ransom glanced at Jack. “It okay if I demonstrate on you? Might make him see that I’m not gonna chop parts off of him.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” 

Ransom took his temperature and checked his pulse, eyes, ears, and heartbeat all while Bitty watched intently as he finished his breakfast.

“You know,” Ransom said as he grabbed new covers for his equipment, “This would be a lot more effective if we actually knew what his baselines were supposed to be.”

“I don’t think mermaids use the metric system,” Jack responded as he moved out of the way so Ransom could reach Bitty easier. “I’ve got him learning the body parts so he can at least tell us if he’s hurt, but you’re right about everything else.”

“Huh,” Ransom said, looking at the display on the thermometer. “Do you know the temp his water is supposed to be at?”

“About 60 Fahrenheit. Why?”

“Well,” Ransom said, picking up his light. “He’s running about 75. Which is a lot more than I’d expect from someone who’s cold blooded in water this cold.”

“Yeah, that’s weird, but there isn’t really … ah, fuck.” He grabbed his phone again.

“What?” Ransom asked, coaxing Bitty to turn his head so he could check his other ear.

“He can’t tell us his body temp, but I bet he knows how much he should weigh.” He leaned over to show Bitty his phone, showing a chart of body weights. ‘What is good?’ 

Bitty looked at him, then slowly pointed to the little picture marked ‘obese’. ‘Good.’ He pointed at the one labeled ‘normal’. ‘Hungry. Not good. No food.’

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Jack snarled, standing up and heading to the door. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

By the time he came back with a second bucket, Ransom had finished his check up. He set the bucket down next to Bitty, who immediately dug in. 

“We’re idiots,” Ransom said as they listened to Bitty burble happily.

“Yeah. He must be warm blooded to be running a temperature that high. Which means he has to have fat reserves to help keep warm-”

“Which means we’ve been starving him,” Ransom finished. “ _ Fuck _ , man. His temp was a lot lower when he was first brought in, and he bit every person who tried to take it once he was more aware. No wonder the poor guy’s been pissy.” He stood up and began packing up his equipment. “I’ll talk to Dr. Murray, figure out a plan for him to gain safely. For now, I’d say just let him eat until he’s not hungry anymore.”

“Got it,” Jack said quietly, watching Bitty devour his food. 

“Bitty,” he said gently, getting the little merman’s attention. 

Bitty looked at him curiously, tilting his head slightly. 

‘I’m sorry,’ Jack said, knowing Bitty didn’t understand but feeling like he had to try anyway. ‘We were bad. I’m sorry you were hungry. I’m sorry.’ 

Bitty just continued looking at him. He whined, and held the empty bucket out to Jack. ‘More food please? Hungry.’

Jack smiled sadly at him, then went to refill the bucket. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So fun fact: there actually is a species of fish called an opah that is warm-blooded, so this isn't totally out of left field. For anyone who isn't as biology obsessed as I am, warm-blooded animals are on a whole smarter and faster than cold-blooded ones, but at the cost of needing to eat more to maintain that body temperature. So, the aquarium has been feeding Bitty like he was a normal fish, not realizing that he has a much faster metabolism.  
> As always, I'm claire3467 on tumblr, come hit me up!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so there's the end! Let me know what y'all thought! I am at claire3467 on tumblr, and I put a good bit of research into this when developing the merpeople, so if you have any non-spoilery questions about them, I'm happy to answer! I'll also be posting the models I made for them (I think it was on doll divine) on my tumblr, so I'll update this with the link once I do.  
> Edit: Link to the pictures! (I don't know how to embed stuff.) http://claire3467.tumblr.com/tagged/fish%20are%20not%20beginner%20pets


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